Sometimes, she feels like she's been working in teahouses her whole life.
Before her mother died, she used to help out, the small child shuffling around carrying a too-big tray with exaggerated care, looking cute and adorable and always garnering smiles from customers. After, she'd had to for a living, and it wasn't quite as fun as it used to be – the fun of acting like a big-person fled when she found herself a big-person too soon.
By the time Mugen and Jin came along, she'd been working in teahouses long enough to know the ins and outs of every part of the business, of good customer service and what kind of customer was best to turn away, even if sometimes she would still let her temper get the better of her when she oughtn't. The smiles she got at that point weren't because customers thought she was cute – they were leers because they wanted more than a teahouse traditionally offered, and she'd had to learn how to deter advances without losing business. Though usually she went ahead and retaliated with her tanto anyways.
After the fire and the fateful meeting, when she was well and truly on her way, had commenced her journey and everything, she often found herself working in teahouses to make ends meet, to earn money for their next meal. There wasn't much else available for a traveling girl to do for money, except prostitution, and she certainly wasn't going to stoop to that when she still had two bodyguards to take care of her. Nor when she could still carry three trays with four cups of tea each, plus some dishes, while evading some of the grabbier customers.
And after the journey ended, when she was once again on her own in the world with no destination and no goal and no companions – well, there's not much else to do aside from working in teahouses, is there?
She worked in Nagasaki for a bit, but it wasn't like she had the luxury to stay in one place for long while the Shogunate looked for her, even if she bought different clothing, and wore her hair differently, and went by Hana instead.
She traveled north. She retraced their old steps, sometimes, going back through villages they'd visited, avoiding others. There were a few pesky borders, a few suspicious people, and the occasional bounty hunter who asked her if she'd seen anyone resembling the daughter of Kasumi Seizou, but she managed.
She finally ended up near Kyoto, where she found a small teahouse run by an elderly couple who enjoyed her company and who were good employers, better than most. It was probably a subconscious move on her part, aiming for a destination near a larger city, in case either of those atrocious bodyguards ever came around.
It hadn't been the easiest of journeys, even without Mugen and Jin around to attract trouble, because they also weren't around to prevent it. There were good times and bad times, and she certainly doesn't think her journey is over – because really, the only final destination is death – but she thinks she's ready to settle for now, in this teahouse, with these nice people, thinking only occasionally of times past and journeys gone and places she's yet to go.
But she's content for now, and is content with working in a teahouse. She's done it her whole life. She could only ever foresee leaving for one, maybe two reasons …
Where are all the whores in this town, eh? I want some alcohol!
Don't be so crass. And you would know if you could read, but this establishment is a teahouse, not your personal bar.
Dammit, Jin, if you don't shut up, I'll cut your tongue off!
You couldn't if you tried.
Until those two reasons walk back in her life, she'll stay.